Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan would like to cut down on food wastage by making all restaurants and hotels define portion sizes. Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan would like to safeguard the moral and physical health of his state’s inhabitants through prohibition. Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh would like to follow suit.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has ordered a ban on sale of liquor within 500m of highways nationwide. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation saw to the public’s convenience by turning restaurant bathrooms into common-use facilities.

From Uttar Pradesh to Chhattisgarh to Gujarat, the leadership is eager to prevent cow slaughter—whatever it takes.

This is not the ‘minimum government, maximum governance’ of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promises.

This is the nanny state run amok—not that his party is the only guilty one. Are there truly no governance issues that would be a better use of the state’s time and energies?